Merry Christmas! 2015

Merry Christmas everyone! This year's Christmas animation follows a church choir (albeit a small one at this point) as they journey around a very snowy city sharing their love for Jesus by singing "Joy to the World". In each scene we see Jesus ministering to someone's needs, a homeless veteran, a lonely woman, a sick child. My idea for this animated short was to create what you see here this year, and then spend the next few months embellishing it and repost it next year.

My goal is to add more and more animated characters and objects to fill the scenes. People and animal characters walking through the scenes, more cars and trucks, and definitely more kid characters in the choir singing, and nervous kids frozen with stage fright are just a few of the things I hope to add. I lost some of my production time this year, so there isn't a whole lot animated in this the original version. I guess that just leaves me even more room for improvement. Watch and enjoy!

Be sure and check back in the coming months, I'll post snippets of my progress of adding "more". But you'll have to wait until next Christmas to see the whole animation fully completed. As always thank you for stopping by. God bless you, and have a great day.

Celtic Cross Postcards

Hello friends and neighbors! Over on my Etsy store I am proud to announce I now have sets of postcards featuring some of my Celtic cross drawings from the last year. Aside from being more affordable than the original drawings I sell in my store, these cards are in color! Ooo... Ahhh!

I've enjoyed drawing these crosses over the last year. I also appreciate the Etsy marketplace. They make it possible for an artist like me to operate a small business because they don't take the lion's share of the profit (unlike the self publishing print on demand options available these days).

It was hard to pick which 6 crosses to include in the set. I like them all. It was harder than I expected to get the people around me to help decide. In America I just expect everyone to have an opinion and be willing to share it. Haha... I'm being funny.

If you have any questions leave a comment. I hope you like these cards, and as always I hope you will share the link with anyone who might be interested. Thanks for stopping by, a God bless. --Ry

Darkest Hour

UPDATE:

Hello again, this evening I'm posting the animated gif version of this illustration I created. This animation is meant to illustrate how in Jesus darkest hour, he shined brightest. I don't mean to imply it literally of course, but figuratively. He calls us to let our light shine too, not to hide it, so that others may see it, and give glory to God in Heaven. That doesn't mean you advertise every little thing you do to make yourself look good. It means do good, and give God the glory, do it because you love God. Why we do good things is just as important as doing good things. Attitude is very important to God.

For the animation I painted several frames of white and yellow light, streaks emanating outward, and rings emanating outward. Then I turned them on and off on different frames, and viola! I like the way it came out, and the hand drawn look it has, rather than a processed uniform software look. As always, thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed this piece. Below begins my original post, take care, and God bless!

Good morning everybody. Today's drawing is the latest in my Sunday Sermon Series. This week Pastor Mike talked about the crucifixion. It was a dark hour, but in that darkness Jesus shined.

Jesus prayed for another way, but accepted his father's will. Since the beginning of time he was meant to be the great rescue plan for us, and he did it. For me, and for you. He wants a relationship with me, and with you.

Here are some verses that Mike used: 1 Corinthians 4:6-9 In dark places God reveals His Son in and through us. John 12:23-28 When the hour turns dark stay focused on the goal. John 12:32-36 When our hearts harden we stumble in unbelief. John 13:23-28 Serving those who misunderstand or even betray us. John 13:12-17 Serving with a right heart dispels darkness in my heart.

The text at the bottom of the illustration is something new I learned from the sermon. I had always thought that when Jesus said "It is finished." he just meant that he was dying, that the crucifixion was over. Before this sermon I had never heard about the "Paid in Full" phrase/definition from Jesus' time. It's always important to keep in mind the culture of the times you are reading/studying about. Otherwise you can completely miss an important point. I am so thankful that my debt is paid in full.

As always this drawing was done with pencil in my sketchbook, then I scanned it, and used several layers in PhotoShop to paint the color, and lighting effect. As always I used muted colors, a very ingrained part of my style. This drawing has little detail though, because I wanted to focus on the light in the darkness. None of us like to go through hard times, times that test our faith. But it is in those times that we mature in our faith. Those times show the people around you who Jesus is. Who he can be to them.

I hope you enjoyed this drawing, feel free to leave a comment, or ask me a question. Thank you again for stopping by. Have a great day, and God bless. --Ryan

Celtic Cross Autumn

Good morning everyone,

Here is the latest in my Celtic cross series. This one is a bit more involved, not in the intricate design on the cross itself but in the background, as you can see.

As usual I created this with a pencil and paper. The color is all done by painting on a single color layer in PhotoShop. I originally sketched the concept out last year, and spent a few evenings last week working out. The last time I spent this much time drawing leaves was when I illustrated Jairo Penaranda's book "The Little Leaf" which is available here. Like most people I enjoy fall, the bright colors in the trees. I'm especially enjoying it this year as we had such a hot dry summer here. I'm very thankful for the cooler temperatures, and the rain.

I chose simple colors, and gradations of a single color for each leaf, instead of multiple colors for the leaves. After spending a few days on the drawing I don't have the time to spend making a photo realistic painting (I've never enjoyed that style myself, why not just take a picture, and save the wear and tear on your hand and wrist?). I like to keep it simple too, it appeals to me.

This is a close-up of a portion of the pencil drawing before I colorized it in PhotoShop.

Thank you again for stopping by my blog. I hope that you enjoyed what I have shared with you here, and that you have a terrific day today, God bless. --Ryan

Snowy City Scene Animation

Good morning everyone!

Today I am sharing a rough animation I have created. I created this scene for my annual Christmas card and animation.

First I drew all the buildings and the train in pencil, scanned them, and colorized & knocked them out in PhotoShop. Next I rendered an animation(quicktime movie) of each one, then I took all those quicktime movies into After Effects and rendered each one with snow falling. On each piece of my "set", as they go further back into my scene I added a little camera lens blur, I did all of this to add to the depth of the scene.

I'm really disappointed with the compression on this. It looks SO much better on my computer here at home. Maybe some day I will find the right settings, that will make a clean and clear video that is small enough to upload from my connection here at home. I will try to replace this video at some point with a version that has better compression settings. Also, I'm not sure why but the animation is cropped. I created a 16x9 animation and this is not as wide as it should be. If you want to see it un-cropped go to my Vimeo page and view it there.

Next I will add riders on the train, and people in some of the windows in the apartments. Some of them will be animated, just a little. I'm only one person and I only have until the end of November. This animation was a huge first step though, proving I could create the look I wanted.

One thing that I needed to learn how to do again (because it had been two years since I did it last) was how to create a snow effect in After Effects. I watched this tutorial by Carlo (sorry if I spelled that wrong) on YouTube. The best thing about the internet is people sharing knowledge, helping each other out. His turorial was quick, concise, and he showed and described everything he did. Very helpful. Thank you to Carlo.

I hope you enjoyed this project, I hope to post a couple updates as I work on this over the next couple months. As always feel free to leave a comment, and to share this post with others. I hope you all have a terrific day, and thank you for stopping by.

Monkey Shines

Good morning folks! Today I have an old image, with a new twist. This enthusiastic monkey(in black and white form) originally graced the back side of my self promotional postcards, along with my contact info.

The new twist is that it is now in color. I was posting to FB, and wanted an image to represent my site for a link within the post. So I colorized the drawing and put my web address on it. Unfortunately in a FB post you can't move elements around like a blog post. Images get lumped together in the bottom of your post. And you can't move an image up in a post to go below a specific paragraph. Since I wanted to post another link (to Vimeo) later in the post I couldn't use the finished color monkey in the FB post.

So you get to enjoy it here on the blog! I've always liked this drawing. Playful, good tone values, and it's got a monkey.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this image, and post. I hope your day goes well, where ever you are. God bless, and thank you for stopping by. --Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series: Prodigal Son July 26, 2015

Update!

Hey-howdy-hey, I made time to do a color version! Well, I needed a break from the chickens I had been drawing for weeks(and will be drawing for weeks to come, but more on that later...), so I spent the last four mornings colorizing the prodigal son and the pigs. this time I made extensive use of underpainting, which I don't normally do. I think it adds richness, and depth to the color. anyway... I hope you all enjoy it, and that you are staying cool.--Ryan

Howdy folks. Today's illustration is another in my Sunday Sermon Series, from this week's sermon at Hockinson Community Church. The sermon was about the prodigal son parable Jesus told and is found in Luke 15:11-32.

I have read this piece of scripture many times, and have heard at least two sermons that I recall on it. Pastor Andy's sermon had a little bit different take(as usual) than the other sermons I had heard. Andy has a terrific knowledge of life/society during Jesus times. I always knew that when the prodigal son asked for his inheritance and the freedom to leave that it was a slap in the face to his father. What I hadn't ever heard before was that it was so much more than that. In those times, and that society it would have been perfectly acceptable for the father to kill his son for the disgrace he had heaped upon him. So the prodigal son's sin could have, should have, cost him his life. But the father saw him coming and ran to him, forgave him, sacrificed the fatted calf for him, welcomed him back with open arms with no questions asked. "For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found." (Luke 15:24)

We suffer the same when we try to shake God off, and live for this world. But if we seek repentance God is always there, running towards us. The tag line sums up what I took from this sermon. I think we should routinely stop and look up from our busy, hectic routine. We should assess our lives, our direction, what we are doing and saying(and why we are doing and saying it), and see if it aligns with God's will(and please know that when I say we, I am most definitely including myself). It's easy to get off track in life, but it's also easy to get back on track. Just turn towards Him.

I did not have time to colorize the drawing this time. With the temperature back in the 90's this week I can spend very little time in my office. Also I have little time these days for work what with Angela, Stella and the boys and the house/chores needing my attention. I like the drawing itself, but am not one hundred percent happy with it. I was going for a more subtle expression of self realization/shock at his predicament for the prodigal son there. More of a "the fog is lifting "What the..." moment. As it is, he looks suspiciously like Marty Feldman if he stuck his finger in a light socket. That's fine because I always liked Mr. Feldman, but it wasn't what I was going for originally. But, with little to no time to rework things what you see is what you get around here these days.

As always I hope you enjoyed this drawing. I hope this post was informative to you and helps you in some way in your walk. Thank you for stopping by. God bless.--Ryan

Sunday Sermon Series

Hello folks. Here is a sketch I made in church yesterday. Our guest preacher mentioned the shootings in South Carolina, which was already on everyone's mind I would guess. He also spoke about how we need to do the right things. To have integrity, to say no clearly, concisely, and with compassion when we need to. Even though God is walking with Karl through the midst of several storms at once, that man has more energy, emotion, and is better at speaking truth than I. I will never be as eloquent a speaker as Karl Johnson, but he said a lot of things that need saying, and that we need to do, not just say.

I really believe that if we don't stop hating people who believe or look differently than we do we will not survive as a nation. I don't know how to fix everything. I know that my God tells me to love you whether you agree with me or not. I do know that if each one of us doesn't try harder to show the people around us respect, and kindness this world will only get worse.

I hope that the people who read this will reach out to someone you meet and be kind, be respectful. I know sometimes it's hard, not everyone is going to react the way you want, but we have to do this. Before it's too late.

As always, thank you for stopping by here. God bless you, and I hope you will have a terrific day. -- Ry

Chip On A Bus

Today I'm sharing with you a sketch of Chip riding a bus. I'm working on a new story. Unlike the previous two picture books starring Chip this one is a middle grade book with illustrations. Probably a lot of illustrations, since I'm an illustrator/writer.

I have a lot of experience with buses. I used to ride an express to and from work in Portland each day for several years. I did a lot of sketching on those 40 minute rides.

Here we see Chip, and to a lesser extent his pal Fred who is sitting next to him. I have been drawing Chip for about 11 years now. One of the many things I like about writing a different kind of book like this (middle grade as opposed to picture book) is that I can be much more subtle. In a picture book you can't get away with the main character facing away from "the camera", in a big crowd. In a picture book your hero should be easy for the little kids to spot.

The guy coming up the stairs is a minor character, whose only job was to start the story off. But then I changed the whole beginning of the story, and this scene doesn't exist anymore. I won't tell you his name, because it was so good I'm recycling it and using it as the name of the antagonist in the new version of the story. Ha! Cliff hanger there.

As usual this drawing was done in a sketchbook, with pencil. No color on this because I don't have time to colorize a drawing I'm not going to use these days.

I hope you all are having a terrific day, take care, and God bless. --Ry

Sunday Sermon Series

Last Sunday our sermon was about the story of Ruth. Ruth is a story about how God redeems broken lives, brings light to the darkness.

One of the points Pastor Mike touched on was how Naomi's faith was highly visible to those around her. Naomi's faith made a big impact on her daughters-in-law, both of whom refused to leave her side even though their husbands (her sons) had died. Ruth went so far as to return to Naomi's homeland with her (a land that was a bitter enemy of Ruth's birthplace, Moab), and help provide for Naomi. Picture giving up your life here, moving to Iraq, or Iran for good to help your mother-in-law after your spouse has just died.

Rather than do what was easy or comfortable for herself, Ruth did what was best for Naomi. Ruth had seen something in Naomi that convinced her to do this. She had seen Jesus, she had seen "love one another" worked out day after day in Naomi's words and actions. It led me to think about how hard I try to "love one another", and how much harder I should be trying.

So as I listened to the sermon I drew this sketch. Jesus is seen directing Naomi. She is providing for a man, maybe a homeless man, I don't know, but a person in need. He definitely suffers from cartoony giant feet.

I hope you enjoyed this drawing, and thank you for stopping by.

Looping Seaside Animation

Hi everyone!

I spent the last few days creating this animation for the About/Contact page on my website. I asked a pal of mine(David Walters) how to avoid collecting spam through my contact page and he suggested CAPTCHA, which is great, but it would have taken me at least a couple weeks to dope it out and get it running right. I never have that kind of time. So instead I decided that it would be really hard for bots to scan and scrape an email address from a moving image, and since I love to draw and animate I went to work.

Ryan's Boats from ryanloghry.

I used muted colors, and pencil texture (in the pier, and the gull on the piling) to help this piece blend with my illustration style. I should have some artsy-fartsy, fancy pants reason, but I don't. I just really like the look of washed out color, translucent, so you can see the pencil work through it.

I was kind of bummed that the tops of all the buildings on the pier got cropped, but in order to get them close enough to see them, they were too tall for the frame. So Here is a small version of that drawing.

I also sketched some gulls sitting on top of the buildings, but they would have been so small, they would have been confusing. I might go back and add a couple 3D ones in though, so I can move them a little. We'll see.

Here is my original pencil sketch, all I had at first was the idea about the boats. When I put that scene together it looked so sparse, I knew I needed to add some more elements. So I drew the pier, and then built the clouds and the seagulls in 3D. The gulls were fun to animate. I still might add something in the foreground on the right hand side, to give the scene more depth.

I hope you enjoyed this peak behind the scenes. I sure enjoyed creating it. --Ryan

Celtic Cross

Hi everyone! Here is my latest drawing. As you can see I really enjoy drawing these Celtic crosses.

This particular drawing has significantly more detail than any other cross I have drawn so far. I added more Christian symbolism this time; the alpha and omega on either side of the globe, and the seven roses. The gears represent the intricate workings of God's creation. The distressed quality on the gears is meant to reflect the fallen nature of our world.

As usual this drawing was done with a mechanical pencil. This time I used a paper with a much smoother tooth, which allowed for more detail. I hope you enjoy it, as always feel free to leave a comment.

Race Caption

Hey everybody!

I saw a FaceBook post/image last week on a friend's wall that talked about Coffee hitting the bench, and Beer suiting up and getting in the game. The image had an old fashioned coach character yelling from the sidelines. Of course that made me start thinking about the race we are all in each week, and drawing my own version. Now you get to join in the fun! Post a caption for the image below. Be witty. Interact. Have fun.

I love the determined look on Coffee's face. He's worked so hard all week, and he is going to MAKE that hand-off. And Beer, just look at his goofy grin. You just know he's going to have fun this weekend.

Have a great week everyone. --Ryan

Celtic Cross and Rose

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the new year. We have been hit hard by the cold season in the Loghry home, thus my absence for the last few weeks.

I've uploaded another Celtic cross drawing to my store on Etsy. The image in this blog post is a close up, click here to view the item in my storefront on Etsy. This cross features a rose in the center, a tribute to my maternal grandmother who grew beautiful roses.

As usual this drawing is 5x7 and pencil on paper. This paper has a pretty heavy nap, so there is not a lot of intricate detail. There is of course a broad range of shaded values. I always try to give the illusion of depth in my work using pencil shading. This time however I didn't include a drop shadow for the cross itself (cast onto the background as in previous drawings).

As always, I hope you enjoyed this drawing, and will pass the link on to your friends and family. I hope you have a great day, thanks for stopping by!